Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-service, I did not come. Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. Fal. He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less. Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were Ch. Just. You have misled the youthful prince. 135 140 Ch. Just. Well, I am loath to gall a new-healed wound: your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded 145 over your night's exploit on Gadshill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-posting that action. 136. him] himselfe Q. 137. are] is Ff. 140. waist] Steevens; waste Q, Ff. 132, 133. As . . . land-service] As I was then advised by my counsel, a man learned in Military Law, that being at the time engaged on military service I was not legally bound to obey the Lord Justice's summons. Land-service, military service as opposed to sea-service. Cf. Fletcher, The Honest Man's Fortune, Iv. i: "Any thing but follow to this Land-service; I am a SeaCaptain you know"; Captain Underwit, i: "does your Comand extend to the Sea or the land service?"; Dick of Devonshire, II. iii: “land soldiers." "Land-service" would apply to such adventures as the exploit on Gadshill. See Middleton and Dekker, The Roar ing Girl, v. i: "all his service is by land, and that is to rob a fair, or some such venturous exploit." 133. I did not come] So when W. Fleetwood, City Recorder, sent for the owner of the Theatre with the intention of binding him over, the latter-writes Fleetwood to Lord Burleigh (June 18, 1584)" sent me word that he was my lord of Hunsdon's man and that he would not come at me but he would in the morning ride to my lord." 137. means] pecuniary resources, as in Measure for Measure, 11. ii. 24. 140. waist] 137, 138. is great] great Ff. 140. slenderer] slender Q. waste " and "waist" is not original. It occurs in Lyly, Endimion, I. iii: "How thrifty must she be in whom there is no waste." And Middleton, The Phænix, 1. vi: “How small are women's waists to their expenses!" 142, 143. the fellow . . . dog] Possibly, as Lee suggests, a reference to some well-known beggar of the day— notably fat and blind-who was led about by a dog. Cf., however, Webster, The White Devil, iv. i: "Brach. No, you pander? Flam. What, me, my lord? am I your dog?" For "fellow belly"; cf. Dekker and Webster, Northward Hoe, v. i: "one of your fat city chuffs, whose great belly argues that the felicity of his life consists in capon, sack, and sincere honesty." ... 145, 146. gilded over] Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, 1. v. 37, and Field, A Woman is a Weathercock, II. i: "I have no ladyship to gild my infamy." Fletcher (The Chances, IV. iii) has "gilded o'er" in the sense "under the influence of drink." 147. o'er-posting] getting over, escaping the consequences of. Craig refers to 2 Henry VI. ш. i. 255, where Hart explains "posted over as "hurried over.... From the sense of post Falstaff's pun on haste." Fal. My lord? Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a 150 sleeping wolf. Fal. To wake a wolf is as bad as to smell fox. Ch. Just. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt out. Fal. A wassail candle, my lord, all tallow: if I did say of 155 wax, my growth would approve the truth. Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your face but should have his effect of gravity. Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy. Ch. Just. You follow the young prince up and down, like 160 his ill angel. Fal. Not so, my lord; your ill angel is light; but I hope 149. My lord?] Singer read My lord-. 150, 151. wake... wolf] Cf. J. Heywood, Proverbs (ed. Sharman, P. 51), 1546: "It is evil waking of a sleeping dog." 152. to fox] Cf. Locrine, II. v: "Trompart. his nose bleeds; but I smell a fox," and Times Metamorphosis, 1608 (p. 31): “Oh now, I smell a fox." "To smell a fox" is "to suspect foul play"; Falstaff seems to allude to the machinations of the Chief Justice (cf. line 203 post). The speech is perhaps an aside. 153. What!] Why! An exclamation of impatience. 155. wassail... tallow] a large tallow candle used at "wassails," i.e. feasts and carousals. Falstaff is later compared to a candle-mine (II. iv. 293 post). For "wassail," cf. Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 10, and Hamlet, 1. iv. 9. 156. wax] with a quibbling reference to "wax," to increase. R. Verstegan, Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1605 (p. 127), remarks that the first syllable of "wassail" [i.e."waes-heal"], "being the same verb [as pret. 'was'] in the imperative mood and now pronounced wax is as much to say as grow bee or become." 156. growth] size, as in Merry Wives, IV. iv. 50. 157. on] in Q. 156. approve], establish, as in line 187 post. 158. have... gravity] produce its effect of grave demeanour. In T. Heywood's If you Know not Me You Know Nobody, Part II. (Pearson, i. 306), the worthy citizen Master Hobson is respectfully addressed as "your grauitie." Cf. Merry Wives, I. i. 57. 162. ill angel] An allusion to the belief that every individual is attended by a good and an evil angel. In Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, a Good Angel and an Evil Angel contend for Faustus' soul; cf. note to II. iv. 328 post. Ff read euill for " ill," but cf. Tempest, 1. ii. 458: "ill spirit." 162. ill... light] A quibbling allusion to the gold coin called an angel. This was first struck by Edward IV, in 1465, when its value was 6s. 8d.; in the reign of Edward VI. it was current at IOS. The angel was at first known as the Angel-Noble, having as its device the Archangel Michael piercing the dragon. For the quibble on "ill angel," (1) an angel of darkness, and (2) a coin light in weight, cf. Marston, What You Will, Iv. i: "the devil is an angel of darkness. Ay, but those are angels of light... Light angels,' where there is a further quibbling reference to "angels of light." Cf. also R. Davenport, A New Tricke to Cheat the Divell, v. i: "Angels are These of Light, or .. and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go: I 164, 165. go: I. . . tell.] go. I . . . tell, Q. 166. costermonger times] Capell; costar-mongers times Q; Costor-mongers Ff 1, 2; costermongers dayes Ff 3, 4. 166, 167. bear-herd] Berod Q; Beare-heard Ff 1, 2; Bear-heard F 3. 167. hath] om. Q. 169. this] his Q. 170. them, are] the one Q. 172. do] om. Ff. but light Angels ?" and Jonson, A Tale of a Tub, 1. i (quibbling on "good angel" and the name of the coin). 164. go] With a quibble on the senses (1) be current, as in Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part I. (Pearson, ii. 41): "I'le so batter your crowne, that it shall scarce go for five shillings"; and (2) walk, "travel afoot," as in Beaumont and Fletcher, A King and No King, v. iii. 164, 165. I cannot tell] An expression of perplexity: "I don't know what to think." The Merry Devil of Edmonton (Haz. Dods., x. 254): “God forgive me, a man cannot tell, neither. 'Sfoot, I am so out of patience, I know not what to say"; and The Puritan, 1. ii. Johnson suggested that there is a play on "tell " in the sense "count as good money." 165. Virtue] valour, as in 1 Henry IV. II. iv. 119. 166. costermonger times] "These times when the prevalence of trade has produced that meanness that rates the merit of everything by money (Johnson). The al usion may, however, be to the decay of fighting with weapons in "these degenerate times" when gentlemen settle their quarrels after the fashion of costermongers; see III. ii. 31, 32 post. For the contemptuous reference to costermongers, cf. Dekker, The Guls Horn-booke: "their muses (that are now turned to merchants)." 166, 167. bear-herd] A show-man who leads about and exhibits performing bears. The bear-herd's was accounted a low and most disagreeable occupa tion; see Gammer Gurton's Needle, 1. ii: "Ich were better to be a bearward and set to keep bears," where the speaker had just said of himself: "Was never poor soul that such a life had." Jonson, The Silent Woman, 1. i: “I entreated a bearward . . . to come down with the dogs of some four parishes; and cried his games under Master Moroses window," etc. In Fletcher, The Wild-Goose Chase, IV. ii, a wooer is requested, when next he came to woo, to come "not boisterously, And furnished like a bear-ward." The form "bear-herd " Occurs again in Taming of the Shrew, Induction, 11, 21; elsewhere in Shakespeare we find "bear-ward." 167. pregnancy] readiness (of wit). New Eng. Dict. quotes T. G., The Rich Cabinet, 1616: "excellent qualities: as pregnancy of wit." 167, 168. tapster. reckonings] Cf. 1 Henry IV. II. iv. 100, 101. 170. not. • gooseberry] Proverbial. Cf. Troilus and Cressida, v. iv. 13: "not proved worth a blackberry." 172, 173. measure .. galls] For this contrast between youth and age Shakespeare is indebted to Lyly, Euphues, Anatomy of Wyt (Bond, i. 192, 193), where Euphues remonstrates with Eubulus: "Doe you measure the hotte assaultes of youth, by the colde skirmishes of age? whose yeares are subject to more infirmities than our youth, we merry, you melancholy," etc. The thought is used again by Lyly in Loues Metamorphosis, IV. ii: "That old man measureth the hot assault of the bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too. Ch. Just. Do you set down your name in the scroll of 175 youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increasing belly? is not your voice broken? your wind short? your chin double? your wit single? 180 and every part about you blasted with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John ! Fal. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head and something a round 185 belly. For my voice, I have lost it with halloing and 175. Ch. Just.] Lo. Q. 180. your chin double?] om. Ff. loue with the cold skirmishes of age." 174. vaward] vanguard; used fig. for "early part" here and in Midsummer-Night's Dream, IV. i. 111: "the vaward of the day." Nashe, Summer's Last Will (Haz. Dods., viii. 57): "in the vaunt-guard of Summer." 174. wags] rakes. Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of Burning Pestle, 11. i: "you have been a wag in your days," where the Citizen's Wife is rallying her husband on his youthful follies; and Middleton, A Trick to Catch the Old One, II. i: "he has been youthful; but is he not now reclaimed? ... if men be wags, are there not women wag-tails?" 176, 177. characters] characteristics, with a play on the sense "letters." So Jonson, Sejanus, III. i: "our self imprest with aged characters," and Fletcher, The Spanish Curate, Iv. i: "the characters of age are printed on you." 177, 178. dry hand] See Othello, III. iv. 36, 37: Oth.... This hand is moist.... Des. It yet has felt no age nor known no sorrow," and Much Ado, II. i. 125, 126. A moist hand was regarded as a characteristic of youth and vigour; cf. Venus and Adonis, 25, 26. 178. yellow cheek] So R. Gomersal speaks of "the tallow of the cheek" as 182. yet] 186. halloing] hallow a concomitant of old age (Upon our vain flattery of ourselves, etc.). 180. single] feeble, with a play on "double in the antithetical clause 'your chin double." For "wit single," cf. Lyly, Campaspe, II. ii: "So dissolute, absolute I would say, in bodie 66 So single, singular in minde," and Romeo and Juliet, 11. iv. 71, 72 (where Lyly's pun on single" is repeated). Also Marston, Histrio-Mastix, III. i: "these are single jests indeed." 181. blasted] withered. Antiquity, age, as in Sonnets, lxii. 10. 184-186. I was born . . belly] Cf., in U. Fulwell, Like Will to Like (Haz. Dods., iii. 337), Newfangle's quizzing answer to Virtuous Life, who has asked him his name: "I was but little when I was first born; And my mother to tell me my name thought it scorn. 185. something a] Collier MS. reads something of a. For the adverbial use of "something," cf. Tempest, III. i. 58. 186. halloing] Perhaps "shouting joyously in boyish glee" (cf. prov. "do not hallow till you are out of the wood "). In W. R., A Match at Midnight, 1. i, a highwayman referring to a prospective booty, a traveller on the highway, exclaims: "There's a morning bird, his flight, it seems, for London: he haloos and sings sweetly: prythee, let's go and put him out of tune." The conjunction here of "haloos" and "sings," and of singing of anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not the truth is, I am only old in judgement and understanding; and he that will caper with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, 190 and have at him. For the box of the ear that the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him fo it, and the young lion repents; marry, not in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack. Ch. Just. Well, God send the prince a better companion! Fal. God send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him. 195 Ch. Just. Well, the king hath severed you and Prince Harry: I hear you are going with Lord John of 200 Lancaster against the Archbishop and the Earl of Northumberland. Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look 194. the young lion] Cf. 1 Henry IV. 11. iii. 148. ... 187. further,] farther, Ff 1, 2. 191. of the] of th' Ff 1, 2; F 4.. 191. ear] yeere Q. 195. ashes and] om. Ff 3, 4. Lord Q (throughout scene). 196, 197. God] Heauen Ff. Prince Harry] om. Q. 203. Yea] Yes Ff. "hallowing" and "singing" in the text, suggests that "halloing" as well as singing" should be construed with "of anthems." "Hollo," a variant of "hallo," is found, in the sense "call or whistle on the fingers," in Sir Giles Goosecap, III. i: "I had thought my fingers' ends would have gone off with holloings." Cf. Lyly, The Woman in the Moone, III. ii, and Jonson, The Magnetic Lady, v. v: "noises... shoutings, hallowings." 191. have at him] here's at him. Have at, to have a 66 go or "try" at. The Interlude of Youth (Haz. Dods., ii. 28): "Pride. Let us begin all at once. Youth. Now have at thee"; Jonson, The Magnetic Lady, 11. i: "If you will [have a beating], have at you"; The Case is Altered, III. i; Fletcher, The Chances, II. i. "Have at" is often used, as in the text, in connection with the acceptance of a wager; see Lodge and Greene, A Looking Glasse for London and England, 11. iii, and Fletcher and Massinger, The Elder Brother, IV. iii: "Sylvia. I'll lay my life. . . . Angelina. Dare you venter that? Syl. Let him consent, and have at ye!" 194, 195. marry sack] Spoken, Craig suggests, as an aside. The thought is borrowed from Lyly, Euphues, Anatomy of Wyt (Bond, i. 224): "I meane so to mortifie my selfe that in stead of silkes I will weare sackecloth." The word-play on "sack[cloth]" and "sack" is common. See A Larum for London, 11: "Come, we 'll mourne in sacke for him," and Fletcher, The Wild-Goose Chase, v. ii: "You shall find us i' the tavern, Lamenting in sack and sugar for our loss." "old sack," cf. Porter, Two Angry Women of Abington (Haz. Dods., vii. 300): "'tis an old proverb and a true, Goose giblets are good meat, old sack better than new," and Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, III. i: "Old Sack, Boy. Old reverend Sack." Sack was a generic name for a class of white wines imported from Spain and the Canaries; see note to 1 Henry IV. 1. ii. 114. For 203, 204. look you pray, all you] Dyce (ed. 2) points: "look you, pray, all you." |